


Home

by tryceratops



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, Multi, karen has a secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 00:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4457579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryceratops/pseuds/tryceratops
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karen has been keeping so much from Matt and Foggy, and the time finally comes for her to come clean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for a brief mention of pedophilia/rape about halfway through.

The first time Matt seriously stopped to consider Karen’s past was when Foggy asked her if she had any siblings. Her response, a completely casual “Nope, only child,” sounded perfectly normal, but her heartbeat betrayed the lie.

But why lie about something like that? He was used to white lies, used to letting those slide, but he wasn’t used to people lying about basic facets of their identities.

He let it go though, having no way of calling her on it without revealing himself to her, and that was something he was not yet ready to do.

* * *

 

Karen had fallen into a smooth routine at Nelson and Murdock. Her pay wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep the lights on and food on the table. Her favourite part, though, was the evenings. Sometimes, after work, when they had nothing better to do, they would all wind up at Matt’s apartment, all in various states of undress, curled up on his silk sheets in one big pile. Originally, believe it or not, it hadn’t been anything sexual. It had started off simply as a coping mechanism, shortly after Fisk was arrested for good. They’d been drinking, celebrating, and they somehow wound up in Matt’s bed, in a bit of a cuddle pile. Purely platonic, she had thought to herself. Maybe not so anymore. There had only been sex once, and it hadn’t been great. A bit awkward, none of them used to sex involving that many limbs, no one wanting to have anyone else feel left out. But there had been lots of kissing, stroking, hugging before and after that. And she enjoyed it, she cool silk sheets on her back, her cheek resting on one chest while another one was pressed up against her side.

Those were the only moments when she felt safe, when she didn’t have to worry about her nightmares. She didn’t have to see Fisk appear, demanding revenge for Wesley, she didn’t have to feel Dan’s blood on her hands. And she didn’t have to remember _him_. She felt free for the first time in years.

It felt strange, though, to be so close to these two people and have told them so little about her life, before or after she met them. But part of what made her feel comfortable was that they didn’t pry. They didn’t need to know what had happened before she met them, and there was no point, now that Fisk was put away, of telling them what had happened with Wesley. So she cherished these little moments when she could pretend none of that mattered, that none of it had happened, where she was just safe with her two boys, and nothing was wrong.

* * *

 

“Do you think Karen is hiding something?” Last time, it was Foggy who had asked the question, but this time it was Matt asking as they sat in their office late one night, looking over case files and sharing some cheap Chinese food.

“What?”

“Karen. Do you think she’s hiding something?”

“Last time I asked, you shot me down. What’s changed?”

Matt hesitated, remembering how upset Foggy had been when he first found out that Matt listened to heartbeats, but he couldn’t hold it back. “She lied. When you asked if she had any siblings, she lied.”

Foggy was silent for a moment, processing Matt’s words. “That’s….” He frowned, “That’s… you shouldn’t be listening like that.”

Matt opened his mouth to speak, to defend himself, but then Foggy continued,

“But that can’t be right. Why would she lie about that?”

Matt adjusted his glasses, “That’s what I’m curious about.”

* * *

 

Neither Matt nor Foggy pried into Karen’s lie, both having decided that it was better to let her tell them things in her own time, but the knowledge hung over both of them, nagging at them both as they went about their lives. Every time their hands brushed, or she kissed one of them, every time her eyelashes fluttered against one of their chests as she rested against them, they remembered it, knew she was keeping something from them.

They never met at Karen’s apartment; she was still too uncomfortable in it. At least, that was what she told them, and it wasn’t exactly a lie. She didn’t feel safe in her apartment, she hadn’t quite been able to get all of Dan’s blood out of the carpet, and she couldn’t afford to replace it yet. She had bought a cheap throw-rug and tossed it down over the stain, but she couldn’t bring herself to walk over it. Every time she got near it her feet felt hot and itchy, and she remembered the feeling of the blood on her hands. Dan’s blood, and….

They never went to Foggy’s apartment, either, though she wasn’t sure why that was. It was always Matt’s. Matt’s with the silk sheets and the giant bed and the billboard that could light a small village.

But beyond feeling uncomfortable in her apartment, Karen felt like she needed her space, like if they got into her space they would learn too much about her, they would peel back all her defences and find her secrets, so carefully stowed away for all these years. They would see beyond the traumatized secretary and everything would come undone.

And the last thing she wanted was to lose the flicker of contentment that she had found with Matt and Foggy.

* * *

 

As time moved on after Fisk’s arrest—that is always the moment everything is relative to—fall turns to winter turns to spring and finally to summer, their personal lives developed just as much of a routine as their work lives. They’d been handling a steady stream of clients, making good money—Karen had gotten a raise already—and winning cases. Personally, the sex got better as they learned what to do with the extra arms and legs and torsos in the bed, as they learned what each of them likes and doesn’t like. They learned every inch of each other’s bodies, every noise they can make, every vibration they can handle. They learned to sleep curled together or increasingly, as the weather got hotter, farther apart, trying to remain cool in Matt’s unfortunately un-air-conditioned apartment. Matt’s bed was big, but it wasn’t quite big enough to fit three when none of them wanted to touch the other. But aside from that, everything with them was going perfectly smoothly.

For the most part, anyways. Karen had a feeling that Matt and Foggy were keeping something from her. Some nights she’d suggest they all go to Matt’s place and Foggy would jump in, coming up with some convoluted excuse about why they can’t tonight. And then there were the bruises. Matt would show up to work with black eyes, split lips, bruised knuckles, and stiff walks. He always had some excuse for what had happened, but she could never quite believe it. Not with the frequency these things happened at.

Something was going on with Matt and Foggy was involved and she hated being left out. But, on the other hand, she reasoned with herself, she had her secrets, why shouldn’t they have theirs?

* * *

 

Karen had a habit of going out for lunch every Wednesday at exactly 12:10. She walked the same route every time, taking a bit of a roundabout way to get to her favourite restaurant, where she would order the same wrap every time (grilled veggies and goat cheese) and a diet coke. She would eat at one of the three small tables the restaurant had and then walk back.

Occasionally, Matt or Foggy, or both of them, would accompany her to the restaurant and the three of them would sit around, eating wraps and sipping cokes, laughing and slinging jokes back and forth.

When she went on her own, Karen would people watch and simply enjoy her lunch break. Sometimes she would chat up the owner, who liked her enough to sometimes give her a free meal, which she never objected to given her pay. He was a nice, older man who had a passion for good food, and he could rant on and on about politics for days at a time if no one stopped him. She was overly fond of him and was always sure to tip him extra.

Matt and Foggy both knew her routine well enough that it came as a shock to them both when she came back from lunch one Wednesday in July early and visibly shaken. To Matt, what stood out the most was her erratic heartbeat and irregular breathing. To Foggy, it was the look on her face, visible even when she tried to hide it behind an obviously fake smile.

“What’s wrong?” Foggy asked her before she could even greet them,

“It’s nothing.” She replied, trying to sound overly cheerful. “Just… um… it’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing.” Matt stepped out of his office, leaning against the wall, his cane still propped up in the corner.

“I just… got some bad news over lunch is all.”

A lie. Another lie. Karen got more and more curious to Matt with every passing day.

“Do you need the rest of the day?” Foggy offered, clearly concerned for her.

“No, I’ll be fine.” She forced a smile. “Nothing that can be done about it anyways.”

Foggy opened his mouth to protest but Matt, knowing Karen wasn’t looking, gave him a small shake of the head.

“Right. Let’s get back to work then.”

* * *

 

Karen didn’t come home with them that night. Her distress hadn’t diminished throughout the afternoon, and she’d insisted she didn’t feel like doing anything that evening. Neither Matt nor Foggy had pushed it, but Foggy had gone home with Matt anyways, and the two of them sat on Matt’s couch, drinking beer.

 “What do you think is going on with her?” Foggy asked after they finished their first beer. There was no need to specify who the “her” was, it was pretty clear on its own.

“I have no idea.” Matt shook his head, “But she lied again, when she said she got bad news.”

“What else could’ve shaken her up that badly?”

“I honestly have no idea.”

While Matt and Foggy were discussing her strange behaviour that night, Karen was sitting on the floor of her shower, doing her best not to cry as the water, now cold, ran over her back. She couldn’t stop shaking, not after what… _who_ she’d seen at lunch.

She hadn’t been religious in a very long time, but she thanked God that he hadn’t recognized her.

* * *

 

Karen seemed much better at work the next day, a more sincere smile on her face, and she’d even splurged and brought in Starbucks for all of them, a very rare occurrence indeed. Usually she made them make do with her terrible office coffee made in the terrible office coffee maker. A cappuccino for Matt with some cinnamon sprinkled on top, a vanilla latte for Foggy, and a London Fog for herself. The drinks were sitting ready on their desks when Matt and Foggy came in, Karen already working away at some filing she had been meaning to do for a few days.

“Good morning.” She greeted, just a touch too cheery. “Coffee’s on me today. They’re on your desks.”

“Good morning.” Foggy said a bit hesitantly, unsure of what to make of Karen’s demeanour.

“Thank you.” Matt said, leaning his cane against the wall and heading into his office.

“We missed you last night.” Foggy offered up, still hesitant, not sure if he was saying the right thing.

“I’m sorry about that, I had some… stuff that I needed to do.” Yet another lie, Matt noted from his office as he sniffed his drink before taking a sip. “But I’m free tonight, if you guys want to hang out.”

“Sure.” Foggy said with a nod before glancing over into Matt’s office. “I think that should be fine.”

“It will be.” Matt confirmed from his own office. “I’m looking forward to it.”

The rest of the day went by without a hitch. Karen seemed mostly over whatever had gotten to her the day before, Matt and Foggy took on a new client who had deep pockets and an easily winnable case, and they were able to close up shop by 4:30.

They stopped for dinner at a bar about halfway between their office and Matt’s apartment, and then crashed on Matt’s couch. Matt sat on one end, Foggy in the middle, and Karen leaned back against the armrest, her feet stretched out over both their laps.

For the moment, everything seemed perfect.

Everything _was_ perfect, until they got into bed. And then suddenly, amidst the hastily removed clothes and the sweat and the speeding heartrates, Karen burst into tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She sobbed out between deep, wheezing breaths. “I’m so sorry.” There was barely any hesitation between Matt and Foggy before they rushed in to comfort her. Matt came up behind her, arms wrapped around her torso, while Foggy knelt in front of her, stroking her cheek.

“What is it?” Foggy asked, brushing a tear away.

“I…” She shook her head, another round of sobs coming out. “I can’t.” She started to pull away from both of them. “I’m sorry, I should go.”

“No you shouldn’t.” Matt said firmly into her ear, strong arms wrapped around her waist. “You should stay here and tell us what’s wrong.”

Foggy nodded and gently tucked some of her hair behind her ears and then wrapped her in a hug as well. “We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.”

“It’s nothing.” She shook her head, “Nothing, I just…” She fell into more sobbing, “I’m sorry.”

“Does this have something to do with what happened yesterday?” Foggy asked. She nodded and took a shaky breath. Foggy looked at Matt for confirmation that that was the truth, and Matt seemed to know what Foggy was looking for because he gave him just the tiniest incline of his head.

“Can you tell us about it?”

She shook her head hard. “No I… No.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll… It will ruin everything. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be here.” She made to sit up and Matt pulled her back down.

“You are exactly where you should be. You shouldn’t be alone right now, that’s for sure.” Foggy offered, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Karen wiped some tears away with the backs of her hands before speaking up again in a tiny little voice, “You’ll hate me.” And she promptly started crying again.

Foggy found himself wishing for once that he and Matt could communicate through facial expressions, because he had no idea what to do about any of this and it seemed like Matt might have some ideas.

“We could never hate you.” He tried, when Matt didn’t offer anything up. “Could we, Matt?”

“Never.” Matt confirmed, one hand stroking her shoulder.

Karen took a deep shuddering breath and let out a noise halfway between a laugh and a sob.

“Things will never be the same…. I can’t.”

“Look, Karen, you’re starting to freak me ou—“

“Karen, whatever you tell us will never leave this room. I can’t imagine anything you have to tell us that could change what we have so dramatically.” Matt cut in. “But I think you need to talk about it.”

She laughed at that. “I can’t, I can’t I can’t I can’t.” She shook her head. “God, I wish I could but I…” She paused to cry for another moment, “You don’t understand, I’m not the person you think I am.”

Foggy opened his mouth to speak but Matt cut him off again.

“How are you not the person we think you are?”

“I’m… none of it is real. None of it. I….” She laughsobbed, “Karen Page isn’t even my real name.”

Everything kind of spilled out after that. She hadn’t meant to tell, but she had been holding so much in for so long that she couldn’t help it.

“I always wanted to be a doctor. I was in college, studying biology. On track for med school eventually.” They’d shifted now, so she was curled up in a ball, her head resting on Foggy’s chest, Matt pressed up against her back, stroking her side. “I had two little sisters. They were…. Sixteen and eighteen when I was in my third year of undergrad. My dad was a shitheel and my mom divorced him when I was ten, but she dated a series of guys after that, and eventually married one of them. My stepdad…. I thought he was nice. I liked him, he was nice to me and my sisters and he treated my mom well. Helped her buy a house.” She shook her head and took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from crying again. “But… once I was away at college…. I don’t know, things changed…. I got a call one night from Alisha, my middle sister. She was crying, said that our stepdad was… had been…” Another round of tears that take her a few minutes to get past, “He’d been touching them. Both of them. Whenever he was alone with them. My mom was out of town for the weekend and she was scared about what he would do…” She paused and took a deep breath. “I…. didn’t even think twice. The guy I’d been seeing had a gun. He kept it in the glove compartment of his truck. I took it and got into my car and drove the whole night to get home. I got there, I don’t know…. Six or seven in the morning, and I walked inside and I found him. In Alisha’s room.”

Her voice had stopped shaking, had gotten cold and clear instead. “I shot him in the back six times. It would’ve been more but there were only six bullets….” She fell silent for a long while after that before continuing.

“I told Alisha to call the police, and she did. They arrested me, but my lawyer said it looked good, that I was defending someone, that it was sympathetic to a jury….” She laughed softly. “My mom paid my bail and got me out, and I thought everything was going to be okay. But then… Because I’d brought the gun with me it became premeditated and…. Everything got complicated.” She wiped her eyes again, “It was… I… They said I could go to prison for the rest of my life, and I…. something in me told me I just couldn’t do it. And… And I’d heard rumours. About this guy a couple towns over from me, who could make you just… just disappear. If you had the money for it.” She laughed again, coming out amidst another barrage of sobs. “My mom had kept some cash in the house. For an emergency. And so I took it, and I drove out and found him. And as far as anyone was concerned, two days later I had killed myself.” She let out a long, shaky breath and paused for a while to compose herself.

“They gave me a new identity and got me far away, helped me change my hair and stuff, gave me some advice…. And now here I am, ruining all that by telling you guys about it.” She laughed sadly and ran a hand through her hair. “I’ve probably told you enough that you could figure out where and when this all happened, who I was…. If you wanted. But… I can’t tell you any more than this. I can’t.”

“Karen…”

She sat up and shook her head before tucking her hair behind one ear. “So… go ahead. Turn me in, I guess.” She laughed and sniffled, “It was bound to catch up to me eventually.”

“Karen.” Matt said, using his no-nonsense voice, “We’re not going to do that.” Foggy sat up and nodded.

“We couldn’t do that to you.”

She turned and looked at them over her shoulder. “I…” She shut her eye and tilted her head down, “Thank you.” A deep breath, “But—But I should go. I… Can’t they charge you as accessories or something, now that I’ve told you?”

Matt reached out and grabbed her wrist with startling accuracy. “Karen, you’re important to us. And we’re lawyers, we’re making this decision knowing full well what the potential consequences are.”

Foggy nodded, “And besides, it’s not like we can just hire a replacement for you. No one else on the planet could figure out your filing system.”

Karen laughed quietly at that, and Matt smiled and slowly pulled her down into his arms. And she let him.

She never would have guessed that _this_ was the murder she would have told them about.

They slept like that, all curled up in a pile together, Karen sandwiched between Matt and Foggy. Foggy’s light snores the only sound in the room. 

* * *

When the sun broke above the horizon and bathed the room in light, Karen woke. Her eyes were crusty from the dried tears and she pretty much felt like crap, but there was a weight off her shoulders. A burden she had almost forgotten she had been carrying had been lifted from her, at least partially, shared with these two men. These two men who had promised not to tell, to take the risk, to share it with her. It made her want to cry all over again, but she found she had no more tears.

Foggy was still fast asleep and snoring, and it looked to her like Matt was asleep as well as she carefully extracted herself from the pile and wandered over to Matt’s shower, turning it on hot and stepping inside. She spent a good twenty minutes just soaking up the warmth of the shower and washing off the previous day’s emotions, and when she finally emerged, Matt was awake and making breakfast. Omelettes, by the smell of it. She wrapped her hair in one towel and her body in another and stepped out into his living room. “Smells great.” She commented with a smile. He looked up and smiled in her general direction.

“How are you feeling?”

“Honestly? Not much better.” She put on a wry smile even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “But… I think I feel lighter.”

“That’s good.” He offered. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Should I go wake Foggy?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Be right back.” She nodded and turned to go back into Matt’s bedroom, emerging fully dressed with a sleepy Foggy following behind her just as Matt was sliding everything onto plates.

Karen smiled—genuinely—for the first time in what felt like forever, as she took her seat across the table from Matt and next to Foggy, her legs brushing against Foggy’s and her feet brushing against Matt’s. She felt, for the first time since she had faked her own death, that she was home.

“Hey Karen?” Foggy asked halfway through his breakfast.

“Yeah?” She glanced over at him.

“You never told us why you got so freaked out on Wednesday.”

Her fork was halfway to her mouth and she sighed and put it down. “Right…”

“I mean, you don’t have to…”

“No, it’s alright… It’s just… I saw a guy I went to high school with. At the restaurant I go to…” She shut her eyes, “He looked right at me, I thought he recognized me.” Her voice was shaking again, “But he just walked right past me after that.”

“That must’ve been rough…”

“I haven’t been that scared since… well, not in a really long time.” She shut her eyes. Even after having told them about one murder, they still didn’t know about the other. Add in Dan’s death which was practically her fault anyways and she was on the verge of being a serial killer. Where had her life gone so wrong?

“I’m sorry.” Foggy interrupted her thoughts, “That was probably a bad topic to bring up at the breakfast table. “So how about them Mets?”

Matt smiled and Karen laughed quietly to herself, but the peaceful mood of the morning had effectively been ruined. 

* * *

Things went mostly back to normal after that evening. They didn’t talk about what Karen had told them again, didn’t pry any more into her past. Things continued on the way they had been for a while, working together, hanging out together, sometimes sleeping together. But something between them had changed. There was a deeper connection now. Karen had told them (one of) her darkest secrets, risked everything to share that with them, and, near the end of the summer, Matt found it was time to return the favour.

He didn’t tell Foggy about his plan in advance. He didn’t really have a plan at all, he just decided one morning that it was time, and that evening, when Karen and Foggy were sprawled out on his couch with him, he brought it up.

“Karen, I…. there’s something you need to know.”

Karen and Foggy had been laughing at some off-hand joke, but they sobered up quickly at Matt’s tone.

“What is it?” He didn’t have to hear her heartbeat to know she was nervous. She was probably expecting him to tell her something terrible, perhaps even something to do with her past. And maybe what he had to tell her was terrible, he had no idea how she would take it.

“I’m the Daredevil.”

There was a prolonged silence, and then Karen laughed. “What?” She looked between Matt and Foggy. “What kind of joke is this?”

“It’s not a joke.” Foggy this time. Karen’s laughter stopped and she looked between the two in apprehension.

“Well not a very funny one, anyways.” She tried, testing their reactions.

“I’m serious.” Matt said, using his most serious tone.

Karen, who had been sprawled across the two of them, slowly sat up.

“You’re the Daredevil?” Matt nodded. She tried not to sound too incredulous. “How... does that work. Exactly?”

Matt could tell she still didn’t believe him, and he couldn’t blame her. So he carefully lifted her feet up off his lap, stood up, carefully took his glasses off and placed them gently on the coffee table, and then walked to about ten feet away from them.

“Foggy, throw something at me.”

Karen sat up. “Foggy, don’t be stupid.”

Before she could stop him though, Foggy grabbed an empty beer bottle off the coffee table and hurled it at Matt as hard as he could. He played softball as a hobby and had a very good throw.

Matt didn’t even bat an eyelash. The bottle went slightly to his right but he reached out and grabbed it by the neck, twirled it around in his fingers and caught it again.

Karen stared at him, then looked to Foggy, and then looked back to Matt. “How did you do that?”

Before she had a chance to finish though, Foggy had thrown another beer bottle and a wine bottle at Matt, who effortlessly caught both of them without dropping the first bottle he had caught.

Karen was at a loss for words, looking between Matt and Foggy.

“You’re… the Daredevil?” She still sounded skeptical. Matt nodded.

“But you don’t believe that.”

“How could I? You’re… You’re Matt. You’re… you’re blind.” She shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Matt gestured at the cupboard he kept his suit in and Foggy nodded, lifting Karen out of his lap and placing her on the couch before going over to unlock the cabinet and pull out the trunk.

“C’mere.” Foggy said. Karen stood slowly and walked carefully around the coffee table, past Matt, to the trunk. Foggy pulled out the top of the trunk, revealing the Daredevil suit beneath it. Karen gasped in surprise. “See?”

She slowly reached down and ran her fingers over the suit, pulling it out to get a closer look at it.

“You’re… the Daredevil.” She shook her head. “So all those times you… you bumped into walls or got hit by cars or fell down manholes or whatever excuses you came up with, you were, what, injured out… out fighting crime?”

“More or less.”

She looked to Foggy. “And you knew? This whole time?”

“Not the whole time… I found out… just a couple weeks before Fisk was arrested.”

She dropped the suit into the trunk and leaned back on her heels. “…The night of the car accident. When you told me not to come over.”

Foggy nodded. “That was when I found out.”

She looked to Matt, “And you…Why are you telling me this now?”

Matt walked over and crouched down next to her after having carefully placed the bottles back on the coffee table. “Because you trusted us with your secret. It was time to return the favour.” He hesitated and then carefully placed a hand on her shoulder, and was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t flinch away.

She laughed. “My secret. My single secret.” She shook her head and laughed some more, “You… you have no idea, oh my god.” She laughed until tears came to her eyes. “Oh my god.” She covered her mouth and stopped laughing quite suddenly, “And this whole time I’ve been going on about hi—about _you_ like some—some fangirl or something, oh my god.”

Matt smiled. “It was kind of nice to hear, to be honest.” He slid his hand off her shoulder and down to rest on the small of her back. “What’s so funny about your secret?”

She laughed. And shook her head and laughed some more. “It’s… I... God, my life is pathetic. My stepfather wasn’t the… he’s not the only man I’ve killed.” She was crying now, though whether from sadness or from laughter it was impossible to tell. To her the entire situation was just so ridiculous.

“He wasn’t?” Foggy asked, suddenly sounding concerned. “Karen, what are you talking about?”

“I…” She brushed tears from her eyes, “You know Wesley… Fisk’s right hand man? He… he found out that Urich and I visited Fisk’s mom and he… he took me. He took me and he put a gun on the table and I shot him.” The noises she was making were a mix between laughs and sobs. Matt rubbed her back gently and Foggy’s hand found her shoulder. “He…I think he would have killed me otherwise.” She shook her head. “Every night I think, ‘tonight is the night that Fisk realizes what I did. Tomorrow I’ll be dead.’ But it never happens. No one ever comes for me. Not out here, only in my dreams, I guess.”

“Karen…” It was Foggy who spoke first. And then, without warning, he pulled her into a bear hug. She didn’t object, instead burying her face in his shoulder and sobbing.

When she finally pulled away, at least ten minutes must have passed. Matt remained crouched by her side, a hand on her shoulder the whole time.

“I’m sorry.” She said, wiping tears from her eyes, “I’m so sorry… You share this… this huge secret and I go and make it all about me again.” She laughed sadly. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Matt said, giving her a small smile. She looked at him, giving him a once-over, noticing how his eyes didn’t quite meet hers.

“But… so… you’re really blind.”

“Yes.”

“Then… then how does that work? How do you do that?”

“The accident that made me lose my vision. It…heightened my other senses. I can hear a watch tick across the room, hear a heartbeat through a wall.

She stares at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. It’s how I knew you were telling the truth when we first met you, working on your case.”

“You could tell I was telling the truth?”

“It works the same as a polygraph. Virtually everyone’s heartrate changes when they lie. I can recognize those changes.”

“So you know. Every time someone lies to you? Even a little white lie?”

“I do.”

She laughed and wiped away some tears. “That’s kind of messed up.”

Foggy laughed at that and nodded. “I know right? He’s some sort of freak.”

Karen smiled at him. “So… so you can fight like that? Just by hearing heartbeats or whatever?”

“It’s more than that. It’s sensing body heat and movement and feeling tiny changes in air pressure… I don’t really know how to explain it.”

“That’s… That’s something else.” She didn’t know what else to say. They sat in silence for a while, Karen resting against Foggy, Matt crouching next to her one hand on her shoulder. She finally broke the silence with a sharp realization. “Oh my god, Matt, you’re going to get yourself killed someday!”

“That’s what I said.” Foggy offered.

“I know what I’m doing.” Matt said in his most reassuring voice.

“Do you?” Karen replied. “I… what would I do. What would _we_ do if something happened to you?”

“Nothing will.”

“You can’t promise that! You’re out there every night fighting against people who… who have _guns_ , Matt. What are you thinking?!”

“That’s what I said, too.” Foggy added.

“Thank you, Foggy.” Matt replied, not all that thrilled with his best friend’s interjections. “But I’m well trained, and I have armor now. I’ll be fine.”

Karen looked him in the eye with a frown. “You… you have to promise me. Promise me that you’ll always come back.” She bit her lip. “Too many people have died around me already. It’s.. you’re not allowed.”

Matt smiled. “Got it.”

* * *

 

Something about their relationship changed after that night. There were no more secrets between the three of them, none that mattered anyways. A far as Matt and Foggy were concerned, who she had been before didn’t matter. She was Karen now, their Karen. And they were hers. And no matter how fucked up the world got, the three of them would always have each other.


End file.
